Top-seeded UConn women to open NCAAs vs. Prairie View A&M

Rich Elliott

Updated 11:41 pm, Monday, March 17, 2014

STORRS -- The path toward potentially achieving perfection and making history for the UConn women has been mapped out.

The defending national champions stand six wins away from securing the fifth unbeaten season in program history, an unprecedented NCAA-record ninth national championship and a team single-season record 40 wins.

The Huskies (34-0) will begin play as the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA tournament Sunday when they face No. 16 seed Prairie View A&M (14-17) in the first round of the Lincoln Regional at Gampel Pavilion (8 p.m.; ESPN).

UConn would then meet eighth-seeded Georgia (20-11) or ninth-seeded St. Joseph's (22-9) in the second round March 25.

"I think in the back of your mind it's inevitable. How do you not think about (making history),'' UConn senior Stefanie Dolson said. "But I think in the moment when the games are going on, you don't think about that.

"But then once we get there and, hopefully, it happens then you kind of reflect on it and you see what a special moment it'll be and how exciting it is that we'll make history.''

UConn received a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament for the eighth straight year and the 17th time overall. The Huskies, who are tied with Tennessee with eighth national championships, are making their 26th straight tournament appearance (91-17).

It is the third longest active streak and the third longest overall behind Tennessee (33) and Stanford (27).

Notre Dame, South Carolina and Tennessee are the other No. 1 seeds. The unbeaten Irish are hosting a regional. The Gamecocks, who are on the same side of the bracket as UConn, will compete in the Stanford Regional with the second-seeded Cardinal. The Lady Vols are in the Louisville Regional with the third-seeded Cardinals.

"I kind of felt all along that we'd probably end up in Lincoln, Nebraska,'' UConn coach Geno Auriemma said. "As it turns out that's probably the right choice if you're going to make the picks that they made and put people where they put them. I thought the committee did a pretty good job."

The Huskies could potentially face fourth-seeded and host Nebraska in the regional semifinals and second-seeded Duke, which lost starting guards Chelsea Gray and Alexis Jones to season-ending knee injuries, or third-seeded Texas A&M in the regional final at Pinnacle Bank Arena in Lincoln March 29 and 31, respectively.

"You knew Nebraska was going to be there,'' Auriemma said. "You just didn't know what number. So I'm not surprised by that. And Texas A&M had a great year. People might be a little bit surprised that Duke is a No. 2, but when you look at how well they played given their injuries maybe they deserve it. Maybe they deserve to be a No. 2 the way they responded from that kind of adversity.''

The Huskies and Louisville are the only teams from The American to make the 64-team field. The ACC and SEC have a tournament-best eight teams in the field. The Big-12 has six. The Big Ten and Pac-12 each have five. The Atlantic 10 has three,while the Big East has two.

"There's really nothing you can do about that,'' Auriemma said. "We've got Notre Dame, West Virginia DePaul, Syracuse, St. John's ... We got a bunch of (former Big East) teams in. So I'll hold on to that for a little while. I remember in 1995 we only got two teams in the NCAA tournament and we did pretty well that year.''

The Huskies are also looking to extend their NCAA record by advancing to the Final Four for the seventh straight season. Again, that is not something they are focused on at this point. They first need to win four games in order to reach Nashville.

"I think coach, he really gets us in that mode where he makes sure we focus on one game at a time because you could be a team that looks too far ahead and the some other team upsets you,'' UConn senior Bria Hartley said. :But you've got to make sure you're just focused on that.''

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About Prairie View A&M

SEED: No. 16

RECORD: 14-17

LOCATION: Prairie View, Texas

NICKNAME: Lady Panthers

COACH: Dawn Brown, 1st year

CONFERENCE: Southwestern Athletic Conference

RPI: 224

BID: Automatic

HOW THEY GOT HERE: Defeated Texas Southern 63-58 in the conference tournament final Saturday

SKINNY: Jeanette Jackson, the SWAC tournament Most Valuable Player, has set a team single-season scoring record (601). ... Washington is the first player since 1987 to complete her career with four consecutive SWAC championships. ... The Lady Panthers opened the season 0-11. ... The Lady Panthers are averaging 65.3 points on 35.8 percent shooting from the field.